


Over and Over Again

by QuixoticKitsune



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: +u, 3rd Person Limited, AU, Angst, Gen, Hueningkai is the only one to remember the past timelines, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Platonic OT5, Platonic Relationships, Scenes and objects from their mvs scattered throughout, Set in the high school from Run Away, Time Loop, as is typical for their fictional universe, big hit universe, mini-character analysis, only mentioned not depicted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuixoticKitsune/pseuds/QuixoticKitsune
Summary: Hueningkai wakes up to yet another October 26. He's lived this day thousands of times, but never seems to get it quite right. But something about this particular October 26 is different. Could this finally be the end? Will he finally see what happens at 5:54 PM?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Over and Over Again

Hueningkai wasn’t one for cursing normally, but he'd make an exception from time to time. Waking up once again to the same autumn morning he'd seen countless times before, to his phone telling him it was 5:53 AM, October 26 and he had one unread message, all he could do was cover his face with his hands and swear. They were so close! So close to finally putting all the pieces together, finally leaving this never-ending cycle, this continuous loop, but then Yeonjun....Tears leak out from between his fingers, sobs bubbling up from his patchwork heart. How many times, how many ways had he watched all of them die? Yeonjun was the most frequent, but he had seen them all with hollow, vacant eyes, time and time again. Countless images seared into his memories that he wanted to forget but kept close as a reminder of what not to do, how to navigate this maze to finally, finally reach the end, together.

And that was Hueningkai's role in this tale: to keep his friends alive and together, even when their words and actions tore them and himself apart at the seams.

***

Hueningkai greeted his mother and sisters affectionately enough to not cause suspicion as he ate a quick breakfast. Don't get him wrong, it was nice to see them, but there was only ever one time they were in danger. Only during that first loop, when Hueningkai and his friends truly knew nothing, did the real world burn. He can still smell the smoke, see the ruined city, the grey swirling clouds parting as a dragon straight from their fantasy land burned down a stadium right before them...only in that loop did they all survive, only to be thrown back, trying to fix what they had broken.

Yes, it was only one time that his family was in danger, he had another family to worry about now. Hueningkai gives his mother a side hug to her delight before he picks up his lunch and places it in his bag. He ruffles Bahiyyih’s hair and skips out of the house before she can retaliate. He won't be seeing them until tomorrow, and that's a long time away. Hueningkai clicks his kickstand up and starts to peddle his bike towards school. Yes, the goal is to finally see what happens on October 27.

***

He's just slipping on his indoor shoes when a bag thumps to the ground next to him.

"Good morning, Taehyun!" he says brightly. His friend glances in his direction and smiles widely back. Ah, it has been a while since he had seen a smile on Taehyun's face: pained grimaces, suspicious frowns and a sort of empty look were more frequent during 5:53. If nothing else, Hueningkai was grateful to see a smile on his friends' faces before the hell began, it reminded him again of what he was fighting for.

"Good morning, Hueningkai."

There are slight bags under his best friend's eyes. He already knows the answer, can recite it by heart, but he asks, "Taehyun, did you not sleep well last night?"

Taehyun grunts as he places his outdoor shoes into his cubby. "Just wanted to go over everything one more time, make sure we have the right spell."

"And then one more time turned into twice, five times, ten times..."

Taehyun frowned slightly. "This isn't something we should be taking lightly."

Hueningkai chuckles, trying to hide the small sad edge to the sound by throwing his arm around the shoulders of his slightly shorter friend and shaking them a bit as they strode towards the classroom. "Oh, trust me, I would never take this night lightly."

Never again.

***

The morning drags, as it always does. Taehyun gives him a threatening glare when he doesn't even open his notebook to try and take notes for their entire first period. As the professor packs his bag, Taehyun says softly. "Don't come crying to me for my notes when you can't do the homework."

Hueningkai cutely pokes his cheek. "Aww, but your notes are so much neater than mine, and you'd never let your cute best friend fail."

Taehyun huffs but doesn't deny it. He starts getting his notes and homework out for their next class. Hueningkai automatically catches his pencil case as it teeters over the edge of his desk, returning it to its rightful place on the wood surface. Taehyun raises an eyebrow but doesn't get to comment as the next professor arrives and asks them to hand their homework forward.

Their second and third classes of the day pass agonizingly slowly. In math, Hueningkai goes to the board and purposefully makes an algebra error in his otherwise perfect calculus solution. It’s such a small change, but if he gets it correct, there is enough class time for another round of problems and the student after him breaks the blue piece of chalk. He has a very important magic circle to draw and needs every bit of chalk to finish it. So despite knowing the answer, Hueningkai gets berated in front of his peers for a simple mistake. He returns to his seat, head tilted down slightly, as if these words actually hurt him anymore and didn’t sound like a broken record.

"You got the point of the lesson right, he didn't need to go off on you for forgetting to distribute the negative sign," Taehyun gripes on his behalf. "Honestly, he should take a page out of his own book, I have a tally of how many mistakes he's made when working examples on the board, and it's not zero."

Hueningkai gives a small grateful smile before returning his eyes forward. That dogged and justful nature helps a lot in keeping the group together, but his unintentionally sharp words also help to tear them apart. For as brilliant as he is, Taehyun jumps to a lot of incorrect conclusions. Hueningkai has tried giving him a few extra hints before they leave in the evening, but it shifts the starting circumstances of the dream unfavorably for them, so he stopped doing that. Not that they would believe him anyway, but he couldn't even attempt to fill in any missing pieces before 5:53.

The bell sounds, and a lot of people hastily rush out the door, trying to get to the cafeteria kiosk first before they sell out. Hueningkai and Taehyun make their way out of the classroom at a sedate pace, toting their lunches with then.

They make their way to the cafeteria, and Hueningkai pauses once their usual table comes into view. The rest of his friends are already seated. It breaks his heart every time he is sent back, being able to see the cracks in the foundation of their friendship but being unable to fix them. The clock rewinds, and he is able to fix and change some things during that extended minute of 5:53, but only going back to this morning is not enough to correct the problems that were in the making for much, much too long.

Beomgyu rests a hand on Yeonjun's shoulder, the two of them laughing loudly about something. Soobin smiles and laughs a moment later, like he's in on the joke, but he's not. He hasn't been for a while now. He started distancing himself from the group, feeling like he was no longer close with the others, like they no longer really heard what he was trying to say. Hueningkai couldn't speak for the others, but he didn't want to push Soobin and had been waiting for him to build up the courage to talk to them, but all he would do was just retreat further into himself. It broke Hueningkai's heart to repeatedly see him break from the group, yell at them for not listening. The kind soft boy he had always known scowling and shouting his throat hoarse over a misunderstanding.

As they approach the table, Hueningkai looks at Beomgyu, his eyes closed in mirth, a wide grin on his face. He hated Beomgyu for a long time, truly absolutely despised him. For the first few iterations, he always seemed to be the cause of their misfortune, of the bad ends: Yeonjun in a field of flowers, Taehyun in a back bedroom, Soobin in a locked office. Hueningkai didn't like to recall it, but there were some loops that he ostracized Beomgyu in, leaving him behind or pushing him away or yelling at him for things he hadn't done in the current cycle. Hueningkai repeated a lot of the same pointless loops in the beginning, hung up on the idea that there was a villain besides fate, an intruder in their midst. But with repetition, he realized a few things. He started noticing the way Beomgyu clung to Yeonjun's every word, tried so hard to get Taehyun to laugh, to cuddle Hueningkai, to make Soobin smile, his extremely competitive nature and determination to come in first even in things he wasn't good at. Beomgyu was desperate for attention, convinced that if his friends weren't looking at him at all times, they would forget about him, and he would fade into the background of meaningless characters. He wasn't a villain infiltrating the friend group, he was a lonely boy seeking a place to belong, people to rely on him, and having found one, was desperate to keep it. Delusions mix with reality on the island, and emotions are amplified during that endless minute they share. He may have been the first to harm someone else, but he wasn't the only one. And he always was backed into a metaphorical corner, lashing out to protect himself.

As they take their seats, Hueningkai glances at Taehyun beside him, self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner far too many times. It was through observing and listening to Taehyun that Hueningkai was able to learn all that he did, but he also started seeing the flaws Taehyun was blind to across the timelines. There was always a key detail he missed, something that tipped his perception the wrong way against Soobin and Beomgyu and more recently Hueningkai. But never Yeonjun.

No, Yeonjun always desperately sought to keep the group together with rallying words and actions. And he always ended up dead. Every timeline, without fail, Yeonjun would die. Sometimes an unfortunate misunderstanding between the boys, but more often than not his self-sacrificing nature was to blame. He always put others before himself, and while it was an admirable trait under normal circumstances, he would constantly put himself in unnecessary danger when taking a few moments to construct a plan of action with the rest would net a better result. One that didn't end with him dead. Hueningkai found managing Yeonjun to be a headache inducing task. As much as he loved him, he really wished he could smack him for his absolute idiocy sometimes.

Hueningkai is startled from his musings by a shout of surprise from Yeonjun. Oh, he must have just opened his lunchbox. Technically it was supposed to be Bahiyyih’s, with its cute little apple rabbits and octopus sausages, but Hueningkai stopped feeling guilty about the mix-up a long time ago. Sharing the faced food with his friends and seeing them try to imitate its expressions is a fond bit of time Hueningkai savors before everything is flipped upside down once more.

"So, tonight's the night," Yeonjun begins.

"You really think we can go there without the train?" Soobin asks unsure.

"Taehyun stayed up all night double checking, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Hueningkai reassures with a smile. He stands up, “Be right back, gotta go to the restroom.” Hueningkai leaves them to their debate, he has something important to do.

On his way to the bathroom, he turns the corner at the same time as an office secretary hurrying by with a huge stack of papers. The papers scatter everywhere when they collide and they both apologize up a storm as they gather them all up. She rushes away as soon as she has a hold of everything. Well, except for her keys. Hueningkai picks them up from the floor and places them in his pocket before continuing on his way to the restroom. He did actually have to go.

He enters a particular stall and looks around at all the messages written around him. There were the typical rumors and confessions you could find at any high school but scattered among them were messages that Hueningkai had been trying to figure out for a long, long time. They were all written in the same tidy hand, and the most haunting was “Remember my name.” He was certain these messages and their writer were important, and whenever he felt close to finally putting it all together, he was inevitably thrown back to the start.

He washes his hands thoroughly, shutting off the faucet before looking at himself in the mirror. He’s freezes. There’s someone behind him.

A woman dressed in all white, her face obscured by her long black hair. Hueningkai recognizes her, from the training room a week ago. He quickly turns to look at her, only to find that she is gone. In her place there is a single white lily. He picks up the slender stem in shaky hands and strokes the smooth petals. It is not a figment of his imagination, this is real, something is actually different today. He looks back up to the mirror. The woman doesn’t appear again, but there is message written in steam on its surface: “Remember the promise.”

Hueningkai leaves the restroom, mechanically making his way down the hall. He twirls the flower between his fingers, seeing if a different angle will grant him any more clues. What did this all mean, what did it change? In his distracted haze, Hueningkai stumbles into a janitor’s cart. He apologizes and actually looks where he’s going as he returns to his lunch table.

“What’s that?” Taehyun points to the flower.

Hueningkai is at a loss for words, so he responds truthfully: “I got it from a girl.”

Yeonjun has a foxlike grin on his face, lips curled in delight. “It was only a matter of time before someone confessed to you. C’mon, tell us, do we know her?”

Hueningkai shakes his head. “I don’t know her name, and she left quickly.”

Yeonjun purses his lips in disappointment. “Well, if you see her again, point her out to me, Beomgyu, or Soobin. She’s probably not in your grade if you don’t recognize her.”

Hueningkai nods, and then lunch returns to the major topic at hand: the magic spell they planned to cast tonight after school. They wanted to open a door to the island. They didn’t have much magical power on this side, but the hope was that if the five of them combined their power during blue hour, they’d be able to cross the border. Two weeks ago, they went to magic island via the train. Everything was fine, up until night fell. Their campfire got out of control and the woods caught fire. They were able to get back to the real world, but worried about using that entrance again. So instead, they sought a new way to get to the island. They discovered personal conduits, objects that allowed them to channel a fraction of their powers in the real world. It started when Soobin found a d20 last week in the practice room, sparking with magic. He was then able to cast a few very basic spells, and the rest began seeking their own objects. Yeonjun’s was a plush monster keychain, Beomgyu had a small glass sphere, Taehyun an old teacup, and Hueningkai’s was a bottle cap from a blue fizzy drink. Together with their spell book and runes, they hoped it would be enough, but only had one way to know for sure.

The bell rings, signaling that lunch is over.

“See you all after class,” Yeonjun says, the first to get up, signaling the end of their meeting. Soobin and Beomgyu leave next, and then there is only Taehyun, hanging back, waiting for Hueningkai to put back together his lunch containers. He smiles bashfully once he’s done, and the two make their way back to the classroom.

Once again, the last classes of the day go by simultaneously too quickly and too slowly for Hueningkai. He already knows all the questions and answers, so although his notebook is open and his pencil is busy, he is not writing notes. He is trying to figure out where the girl in white fits in to everything. She has to be the name they can’t recall, right? But what did she mean about a promise? And the lily, did that have any significance?

These thoughts swirl endlessly in his head and he gets absolutely no where by the time the last bell of the day rings. The students start to tidy up the classroom before leaving. Hueningkai and Taehyun put on their outdoor shoes and walk down the block, wasting some time before they return to school by getting snacks at a local convenience store. They each grab an ice cream despite the slight chill in the air and sit together on a bench.

It’s quiet between them, but not an uncomfortable silence. The first few times around, Hueningkai filled the silence with chatter, never very comfortable with a lack of noise, but he has learned over many cycles to treasure this time, this peace before the storm. He watches as the sun sinks low on the horizon, the sky turning a beautiful shade of blue.

Taehyun clicks on his phone screen on, the time is 5:13. “We should head back.”

Hueningkai closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before standing. He smiles widely at his friend. “Then let’s go!”

They return to the school gate to find Yeonjun, Soobin, and Beomgyu already waiting for them. They head for Hueningkai and Taehyun’s classroom, decided on for its west facing window since the timing was so important. Unfortunately, the door is locked.

Yeonjun lets out a frustrated sigh. “Well, I can probably pick it before the sun sets.”

He starts hunting through his bag, looking for a bobby pin, but Hueningkai nudges him to the side. “Don’t worry, I got this, hyung,” and pulls the set of keys from his pocket.

Hueningkai easily unlocks the door and holds it open for the rest to file in. Yeonjun and Beomgyu let out whoops of joy as they pass while Soobin gives him a small smile and pat on his shoulder. The last is Taehyun, his eyes sharp and disapproving, who stands in the doorway and stares at Hueningkai head on. The others pay them no mind, already focused on moving desks and chairs out of the way. “Kai, you shouldn’t pick up Yeonjun’s bad habits,” he says softly. “I know you look up to him, but-”

“I promise, I didn’t steal them, someone dropped the keys and I found them on the ground,” Hueningkai says solemnly.

Taehyun stares at him and sees the honesty in his eyes, then nods before starting to help the others rearrange the classroom. Hueningkai closes the door and does the same.

Once the space in the middle is cleared, Taehyun pulls out their spell book and uses a sharpie to carefully draw the runic square. Yeonjun and Beomgyu keep an eye on the sun and Soobin draws a door on the board. Hueningkai slips the blue piece of chalk from the board ledge into his pocket before settling next to Taehyun, watching as he draws the last few symbols.

“Finished,” he says with a sigh of relief. As he gets to his feet, he asks, “How are we on time?”

“Sun is almost set,” Beomgyu says, eyeing the horizon. “We should get started.”

Each boy pulls out a pair of glasses and slips them on. The previously dull circle is now giving off a silvery glow. They each hold their item in their right hand and place it close to their heart. With their left hands, they grab the elbow of the person next to them, making a pentagon.

“Now, close your eyes and imagine that the door is real,” Taehyun says softly.

Hueningkai closes his eyes at 5:52. He hears the clock on the wall _tick tick tick_. And then it stops.

At 5:53, Yeonjun lets out a gasp. “Guys, look!”

The others open their eyes to see that the drawing of a door on the board has disappeared. There is now a real white door, edged in a blue glow at the front of the classroom. They let go of their joined hands and move towards the magic door. Beomgyu pulls it open to reveal a forest. He excitedly steps through. Yeonjun follows right after, then Taehyun, then Soobin. Hueningkai steps into the doorway and takes one last glance around the classroom. He eyes the lily, left forgotten on his desk. Hueningkai has gotten so used to reliving this day over and over without change, until today. He uses a bit of magic and the breeze carries the flower into his waiting palm. He twirls the white flower between his fingers. Maybe this is a sign that this repetition was finally coming to an end. Without looking back, he steps through the doorway and swings the door shut behind him.

***

The door vanishes. The clock on the wall starts moving again _tick tick tick_

A woman dressed in all white sits on a desk, watching the second hand make its way around the clock _tick tick tick_

She closes her eyes as the second hand nears the top _tick tick_

The classroom is silent once more.

“I’m sorry.”

The clock hand starts to turn backwards.

***

When Hueningkai opens his eyes, all he can see is black. He flexes his stiff muscles, groaning slightly. His hands were folded around something and laying on his chest. He can’t see what it is, it is too dark. He tries to sit up but hits his head on something hard. He swears and rubs the spot on his head before raising both hands and feeling above him. Whatever it is, it feels hard and solid. He pushes against it, and it slowly swings on hinges to his left. His surroundings are still pitch black save for blue and green lights in the distance, but Hueningkai can see now. He doesn’t know if that is necessarily a good thing anymore.

He looks down and sees that he is dressed in a nicely tailored black suit. The thing that he was holding was a bouquet of white lilies. And he woke up laying in a coffin.

Hueningkai sets the lilies down and shakily climbs out, trying desperately to remember what just happened, but he was coming up blank. All he can remember are the faces of his friends and all he wants to do is get back to them, he hates being alone in this dark, empty space.

Out of the nothingness, a set of white steps appear one by one, then a set of white double doors. Hueningkai approaches them slowly, getting a faint sense of déjà vu. He sets his hands upon the gold handles then swings the doors open, revealing a bright blue sky, full of puffy white clouds. Across the space, there is another white door which swings open to reveal Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, and Taehyun. His friends, he had to get to his friends.

Hueningkai glances down. What he at first thought was sky is instead water, gently rippling and perfectly mirroring everything above it. He tentatively sets his foot down and is surprised to feel something solid. He places his next foot and is now standing in the sky. He looks back up to his friends with a smile and begins to run towards them. He reaches his hand in front of him and then

Then he’s falling down, plunging into the water, sinking deeper, everything going darker and darker.

***

Hueningkai gasps, trying to catch his breath as he sits up suddenly. His eyes frantically look around him. He’s in his bedroom and there is morning light streaming through his window. He pulls the plush rabbit beside him into a hug, forcing himself to breath slower, waiting for his heart to stop racing. It was just a nightmare, just a nightmare.

His phone buzzes. He opens his eyes and scoops it up. He swipes past the screen showing the time and date, 5:53AM October 26, and sees a message from Taehyun: “Don’t forget your glasses.”

Hueningkai smiles to himself. That’s right, today is the day they try to make their own door to the magic island. He springs out of bed, excited to see where the day will lead.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been streaming when I can to support TXT's recent Japanese comeback, and rewatching their past mvs, particularly Run Away, inspired this one-shot. Can you tell I'm a fan of dramatic irony?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! <3


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